For 10 years of ruling BG and 15 billion from the EU alone, authorities have reported an excess in personal weight only.
As a professor of leadership and management one of my favorite quotes in this field is Winston Churchill’s “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”
Imagine Bulgaria as a joint stock company, in which from time to time the shareholders (voters) elect a management board (parliament) and it appoints a team of managers (Council of Ministers), headed by a general director (prime minister). In our case, General Director Boyko Borissov has been elected by the shareholders since 2009 with a short break. In fact, for about 10 of the last 11 years, our joint stock company has been managed by the same CEO. Which is a very long time – the freshmen of 2009 (and newly fledged shareholders) have never actually seen another principal!
The joint stock company is quite stable financially. In addition to the shareholders' money, it also has a generous sponsor in the face of the European Union, which gives one to three billion Euros every year! And since it has the two main resources in abundance – 10 years of time and 15 billion (from the EU alone), the company should, with a little ambition and managerial talent, give solid dividends!
As shareholders in the company, we should ask ourselves what dividends has this management brought us? But in order not to be accused by other shareholders of emotional (and political) bias, let's use recognized world ratings and indisputable numbers and sources as metrics. In other words, let's follow Churchill's advice and "look at the results."
In 2009, we were very worried about corruption in the company – is there an owner who likes being stolen by his own managers! But while it was ranked 71st in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index, then in 2020 it is already ranked 106th in the world and last in the EU – that is, it is much worse.
Second (if not first), the main hope of the shareholders was to increase their income. It did not happen! Ten years later, Bulgaria remains the country with the lowest-wage jobs – i.e. zero result.
Hasn't media freedom improved so that we know better what exactly our managers are doing? No! From 68th place in 2009, our company has dropped to 111th place according to the rating of Reporters Without Borders. In other words, dramatically downwards.
Maybe the management team has dedicated itself to the health of the shareholders? No! Many of them are leaving the company – out of 7.46 million shareholders, less than 7 million remain. So to speak, impressed by the "talented" management, half a million voted with their running feet. But the rest in the company are also seriously endangered – according to the World Health Organization, Bulgaria is the country with the highest rate of mortality in the world, i.e. there is no further down!
Okay, maybe the company's strategy is to replace current shareholders with foreign ones? No! If foreign direct investment in 2009 was 7.5% of GDP, now it has reached the miserable 1.9%. Serious difference, isn't it?
Let's take a look at the management's concern for the education of young shareholders. In 2019, the company took the last place in the European Union in functional literacy among students according to the results of PISA. The corporate university also seems limping. After 10 years of care for higher education in the company, the best university in our country – Sofia University, is in 1001st place in the world rankings (there are 195 countries in the world with Vanuatu, Lesotho, etc., if there were 5 universities in each, we would still be in 975th place).
In fact, how easy is it to do business with and in the company? In 2009, according to the World Bank, Bulgaria was ranked 47th in terms of "ease of doing business", now, in 2020 we are 14 places lower – 61st.
Then, with what results, (I’m asking as a minority shareholder), can the management boast?! How can it account for these 10 years and BGN 30 billion (the funds pumped by the EU only)? In my opinion, the answer is obvious: with nothing but being overweight!
In Japan, they would rip open their bellies in front of the office as a sign of apology and repentance. In America or Western Europe, such managers would be fired immediately by shareholders for blatant, not to say criminal, incompetence and lack of any indicators of success. But not in our joint stock company!
One thing I do not understand: where is shareholders’ mind? And what do they think… or do they think at all?
